Create a succulent ball

I love a bit of garden art so I’m going to create a living succulent ball that can be a hanging feature in your garden.

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 good sized hanging baskets
A stylish selection of succulents
Quality potting mix
A piece of cardboard
Cable ties
A few pieces of floristy wire

I’m using matching Stratford Hanging Baskets from Northcote Pottery’s Clyde Garden Collection. The detail on them is bird cage like, which is wonderfully decorative and there’s plenty of room for planting succulents.

Start by filling both of the baskets with potting mix. Now the tricky bit is joining the two baskets to form a sphere – so here’s a neat trick. Simply place a piece of cardboard over the top of one of the baskets, put the two halves together and gently slide the cardboard out. Then firmly secure the baskets with cable ties.

Now comes the fun part the planting. I’ve chosen a selection of Echeveria’s from InStyle succulents. I’m using different colors and forms for extra impact. So I’ve got some darker forms like ‘Painted Lady’ which has burgundy coming through the foliage and ‘Black Knight’ which has burgundy or almost black tips and then some silver forms for real contrast.

These plants have been grown as plugs so they’ve only got a small root system which makes them perfect for this style of planting. Now all you need to do is cut little holes into your hanging basket liner and pop them in. If they are a little insecure just get your hands on some floristry wire and you can pin them in.

If you’re finding it tricky to get underneath then try resting the basket on a pot to do the lower half and remember to secure any loose succulents with floristry wire. Now all you need to do is reattach some of the wires from the hanging basket were removed earlier and it’s ready to display in the garden. The perfect garden disco ball!